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City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare

“Is that,” Isabelle said in a low, amazed voice,” Brother Zachariah? When did he get hot?”

3.5 / 5

CONTAINS (mild) SPOILERS

The long awaited final book in “The Mortal Instrument” series finally arrived, and I rushed out to buy it. Firstly, because I hate having an incomplete collection on my shelf, but more importantly, because I was excited to see what will happen. We were promised deaths. Lots of deaths. This excites me, there is nothing I love more than an author who is willing to test their characters, especially those who are able to kill off main characters.

As an ending to “The Mortal Instrument” series, this book was good. It tied together a lot of loose ends that the previous books had left. However, it was a fan pleaser, with no real plot twists or surprises. Everyone gets a happy ending. Although we were promised deaths, these were predictable deaths. I was hoping that Cassy may kill off a main character, for me, that would have caused excitement and a twist. However, she never has. She killed off Max in a previous book, but he was never really a main character, and she killed Will, but he was old, and it was inevitable. For me, if she killed off a more prominent character in the book, such as Simon or Alec, it would have created excitement and that element of risk and thrill that I love.

My main frustration with the book was Emma and the Blackthorn’s story weaving throughout, who will be the main protagonists in Cassandra’s new series, “The Dark Artifices”. I felt like it did not input anything into the story, and was included into the book as a propeller into the new series. Unfortunately, due to this, I skim read most of the chapters focused on them. Personally, I would have preferred them to have has a lesser role in the book.

However, I adored “The Infernal Devices”, and was thrilled that they included Tessa and Brother Zachariah / Jem into the book. She nicely wrapped up how they came to being together, as set up in “Clockwork Princess”, without it a main focus of the book. I also loved the subtle references to the “The Infernal Devices” series, linking the world together closely, and giving a silent nod to her TID fans.